{"id":12139,"date":"2019-09-13T17:28:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=12139"},"modified":"2019-09-13T17:28:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T17:28:26","slug":"no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/13\/no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"No Such Thing  As A Free Lunch?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><strong><span class=\"s1\"><i>Email regarding school lunch late fees triggers panic, apologies<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By Eric Valentine<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">A perfunctory beginning-of-the-year email from the Blaine County School District regarding school lunch late-fee policies sent some parents who received it into a panic that state Health and Welfare officials would come knocking on their door.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">A closer read of the original email threatened no such thing, but in today\u2019s climate of digital messaging overkill and the district\u2019s own battles with what some parents and teachers have called a fear of retribution, it\u2019s easy to see how misinterpretation took effect. The school district was all apologies by Monday and reissued the email with more clarification.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">\u201cThe policies were emailed without context and caused concern, which was not our intention,\u201d district spokesperson Heather Crocker said of the first message. \u201cWe have never called Health and Welfare about a lunch\/breakfast issue since I have worked for the district.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">At issue was how the district would handle any student\u2019s school lunch plan that had an unpaid balance of $5 or more. One part of that original email said, \u201cIf no attempt has been made to satisfy the account or provide for the student\u2019s meal within five (5) school days, the building Principal may notify the Idaho Department of Health &amp; Welfare, if appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The followup email instead stated, \u201cAll students will continue to receive a balanced meal for breakfast and lunch regardless of the balance on their family\u2019s account. The policy mentions referring families to Health and Welfare. This is not part of our regular practice. Only when there is concern about a child\u2019s safety do we report, as required by law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">The original email also indicated that when a child\u2019s balance goes unpaid, parents can apply for the free and reduced lunch program. In a written response by the district when asked about what happens when parents can\u2019t or don\u2019t pay up, Crocker wrote, \u201cThey are given until the end of the school year to pay their balance. After that, it is sent to collections. There is a Farmer\u2019s Market fund that can provide assistance if families are experiencing hardship and cannot pay the balance. We never deny a child a meal if they can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Email regarding school lunch late fees triggers panic, apologies By Eric Valentine A perfunctory beginning-of-the-year email from the Blaine County School District regarding school lunch late-fee policies sent some parents who received it into a panic that state Health and Welfare officials would come knocking on their door. A closer read of the original email [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,18,49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"category-news","8":"category-top-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}